Oh My God's Xiyang: 'I’m just really happy we don’t need to play the Promotion Tournament'

Oh My God’s top laner, Xiyang, after a Week 3 victory over I May (Dionne Ng)

In a five game series that included a remake in Game 1 due to a mouse error, Oh My God reverse swept I May. In the final match, they even played Renekton, Lee Sin, Ahri, and Kog’Maw: champions associated with the classic OMG squad of 2013 and 2014.

Following the games, OMG’s players fielded questions from Chinese press. The questions and answers are all translated from Mandarin Chinese to English.

Kog’Maw is really easily countered. In the fifth game, why were you so confident as to first pick it?

Han “S1mlz” Jin: Because I had confidence I could win.

Today’s match was a difficult 3:2 victory. Can you assess the performances of each of your players?

Coach MingZhe: We won, everyone played very well.

After you lost the first two games, how did it affect the team’s morale? In the entire series, what do you think was the turning point?

Xie “Icon” Tianyu: In the beginning, we went down two games, but regardless of whether we won or lost, it didn’t matter. We had progressed a lot this season. This let us relax a little. Certainly, the losses had an impact, but we could quickly make adjustments and come back.

Since 2014, this is the first time OMG has reached the semifinal. Hu “Xiyang” Bin, as the team’s veteran, what is the difference between your success three years ago and now? From your perspective, is there a special significance?

Xiyang: I don’t remember the last time. I’m just really happy we don’t need to play the Promotion Tournament.

Liu “Five” Shiyu, what was your favorite champion to play this split? Was it Lulu? Because, in the final game, Renekton, Lee Sin, Ahri, and Kog’Maw — this is nearly the old OMG’s most classic composition. Did you pick Lulu because you play it the best?

Five: It was necessary. The composition needed a protective champion like Lulu. My favorite champion to play was Miss Fortune.

In a previous interview, I asked what your expectations were for playoffs. You said you wanted to at least make the Top 4. You’ve now achieved that. What adjustments will you make to your goals?

S1mlz: The day after tomorrow, we play against WE. We’ll give it all we’ve got.

Before the match today, Icon shouted “OMG, come on!” in front of the spectators. Now that you’ve won, do you have anything to say to the fans who supported you?

Icon: We didn’t disappoint everyone. It feels good to win.

Today’s games spanned a very long amount of time. How did you work on your players’ mentality?

MingZhe: As Icon already said, we didn’t have a large psychological burden. We progressed a lot this season. Whether we won or lost, we could accept it. We already exceeded expectations this season, and the long match could toughen us up. In winning, I think the players’ cooperation and confidence were both a great help.

There were a lot of strange circumstances in the games today, but a lot of fans came to support you. How do you feel about this?

Chen “World6” Yutian: I heard them. I’m very happy.

What were your expectations for today’s match?

MingZhe: I expected it to be very difficult and for it to go a full five games. But we didn’t feel a heavy burden. If we lost, we would just play better next season.

Can you pick a word that describes how it felt to win today? How does it feel to be in the playoffs for the first time? Are you satisfied with your performance?

Smlz: My inspiration has dried up. We don’t have the same momentum as before. We don’t have a lot of time to adjust before we play against WE.

World6: He’s right.

Aside from strategic reasons, was there any superstitious reason you banned Nautilus in the final game? [Note: AmazingJ often will pick Nautilus in I May’s Game 5s]

MingZhe: There wasn’t a superstitious reason. Our pick and ban strategy was to target AmazingJ. In the final game, we also thought we had an advantage in draft.